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PROF Woes

The ordeal for most begins one sweltering afternoon sometime in summer. The realization takes place in passing. It couldn’t in any other way because of the inevitability. Deep inside we all know that it’s bound to happen, even if we are wont. So, one day while pushing through the drudgery of theories, diseases and actual work, one goes, “Oh man PROF!!”.

Work it is, to everyone. But how is it an ‘ordeal’ may not be discernible to quite a few. Those with a ‘fool proof’ life plan. How it all began for them requires wandering down the uncharted memory lanes of the ‘dedicated’. However, every ‘way’ has its perils, and with PROF come great perils.

That PROF is an instigator of such ‘perils’ is only partly true. The PROF season does, however, provide an important microcosmic insight into how a certain stratum of our society thinks and operates. Here I’m considering the middle class, who make up the bulk of the educated and the ‘being educated’. How the way they perceive education and how it affects what they do in future, most certainly does not take place in a ‘void’. The rat race to success in PROF mirrors much of what takes place after one finishes his or her studies.

Politics of PROF

So what are these perils that I speak of? Most certainly studying much of day light and night hours to the extent that you lose sense of time, but still relying on ‘chance’ to make a difference between great success and mere success, or success and failure, is a perilous situation to be in. This is exactly the mental cacophony that has to be dealt by someone studying for PROF.

The social background of the individual also makes the situation ‘perilous’, or at least I would like to think. Middle class, the educated middle class, lives in a world, in a bubble, which is the height of mediocrity. The life has a set path. You are born, you go to school, you go to college, you become a doctor/engineer/civil servant, and you make money, get married, make babies, and perpetuate the cycle. Over and over again. Such a life style should raise questions, and it does. However, I intend to discuss only what’s relevant to the issue at hand.

What piques my intuition is, what exactly MOTIVATES people who choose to remain and continue to remain in such a lifestyle? The answer is intricately wound in the way our society, culture, and social conscious operate. We have to remember that education is one of the factors that create ‘social mobility’, and still being traditionally agricultural society, a large part if not most of the middle class, comes from a rural underclass background. The realities of life, the tug of war over land, possessions, high status of a village noble, translate into an urban struggle. The same mentality is at work, even if one moved on from ‘the village’ generations ago, it is deeply ingrained in the psyche.

In the dullness of middle class life, competition is ‘created’, along the lines of money, land, possessions, connections, social status, caste, and even color (the whole ‘fair and lovely’ complex). Since we aren’t exactly a meritocratic society, corruption helps immensely as well.

This ‘competition’ is particularly profound when it comes to ‘doctors’, because of the notion that exists and persists among us that it is a noble profession. Noble here means status and money. Hence parents work hard, and so does the ‘educational system’, to produce these trophy children, who know only, and think only to achieve that would ensure and perpetuate their status quo. It is strange the profundity with which this urbanized village mentality persists, almost like a religious obsession. Even though, doctors are barely respected anymore, nor does such a profession ensures monetary safety.

Hence, for these trophies to shine, they must compete. Compete for space, compete for position, and compete for status. I doubt most realize they are guinea pigs to the system, regardless of how well off they are likely to be after acquiring the M.B.B.S. Before someone gets pragmatic about this (maybe not so obvious) ‘peril’ and says, “well isn’t that the point? To study for PROF and MBBS?” No it ISN’T. If it were about knowledge, and imparting knowledge, more people would become teachers or go into research, which obviously is NOT the case! It’s about the lustrous trophies.

This is PROF, the politics of PROF. It is not a mere ‘examination’.

Caveat

Regardless of what PROF represents, we all have an inkling of need for PROF, whether big or small. PROF is not without its advantages. An obvious one is ‘success’ which is a great motivator for everyone, regardless of the underlying driving factors. We all want to taste success, because it provides satisfaction, which in turn helps us to survive and continue. I am petrified, just like anyone else, even at the thought of a “suppli”, because this would lead to LACK of satisfaction among other things, and that would just make it harder to even bare the look of medical books. I hate to use clichés, but PROF either makes you or breaks you, notwithstanding your philosophy on life.

All in all, I do not wish to turn this article into a piece of unauthoritative psychoanalytical babble, not more than it already is! 😛

So, the question is; is this deeply felt expression of woes with PROF meant to help ease the pain? Maybe, provide some release? No, not really. One would be hard pressed to find a ‘remedy’ for something that is needed to provide remedies for countless other pains. But, try ingesting Prozac.